new a-rod, now you see it from here but you're going to see it from there. >> what. >> pressen says away rod. we've got all alone. a-gone and nim-rod. and tons of a-road. thank you very much. "morning joe" starts right now. >> you say you wanted to be a role model. if one of them was to ask you -- >> i plan to sit my girls down with cynthia and we'll have a lengthy conversation and i'll

have an opportunity to tell it all at some point. i'll have that plot form. when my time is write i'll tell my whole story. thanks, guys. >> good morning, everybody. it's monday. >> what do you think of that a-rod guy? >> what i think what "the new york post" thinks, but that's just my opinion. it's monday, august 5th. >> and "the daily news" calls him dead man playing. >> there's that too. >> with us on set pulitzer-prize winning historian jon meacham, president of the council on foreign relations, richard haas, nbc news political reporter kasie hunt and in washington columnist and associated editor for "the washington post" david ignatius. >> as a red sox fan, this bereeves me greatly. richbds haas, you're a yankee fan, let's gloat. they're going to get him out this year, next year. bob costas, coming talking about

it. you get bob costas talking about anything, costas doesn't like to wake up early, can i tell you how big this is? bob costas is on the west coast. >> no. >> and getting up early to talk about "morning joe." >> this is when it's hitting the fan. >> exactly. i have no idea what you're talking about. >> or -- >> a-rod is in big trouble. life-long yankee fan you have to be glad this guy is going to get yanked, right? >> so to speak. your second punt of the morning, it's good he's getting yanked. may go on a little longer. he's appealing the suspension that will be announced today. there's a procedure. he will be gone before the end of the season and then gone all of next season. effectively his baseball career, i would say, is all but over except for possibly a year and a half from now, two years from now, might play for somebody,

b but i don't the yankees. >> phil griffin the president of this esteemed right wing network said that he sees this as hypocritical because he says owners have been making billions of dollars off of these sideborings for year, they know have been juiced, sitting the home runs, the fans coming out, now suddenly it's the casablanca scene. shock, there's gambling going on here and they're going to yank him for life. at the end of the day, he's not a well-liked guy. >> no. >> andy pet it it was caught juicing and a stand-up guy about it. he said i had an injury and did it to recover faster in the offseason and i'm sorry. all these other clowns have lied about it top to bottom and got in trouble. >> i believe it's cheating and when you play a game for a living and you cheat at it you're out. isn't that how it works? is. >> he could be in the lineup tonight. i may get a ticket just go to out and boo him. we have a lot of really, really

smart guys here and women. >> thank you. >>s kasie was screaming at me before the show started. >> a little upset. >> throwing stuff around. meacham, wasn't it ugly? >> i didn't -- i was uncomfortable. >> even as a pulitzer-prize winning hi historian. >> particularly. >> there was no context to put this tirade in. >> no. >> andrew jackson fought a duel that was not dissimilar -- >> an orioles fan -- >> you base your inside voice bs -- >> let's go to the news. when willie geist's helicopter lands at the heliport of the top of the rock we'll bring him down and talk about a-rod. >> 19 u.s. embassies will remain shuttered through next saturday as top u.s. lawmakers and intelligence officials warn of terror chatter reminiscent of the days before 9/11. embassies spread across the middle east and africa closed over the weekend with fears of one large attack or a series of coordinated ones on u.s.

diplomatic installations. security officials say that the threat originates from al qaeda based in yemen. al qaeda and the groups that it's backed has shown a resurgence in recent years from iraq to northern africa. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle defended the closures. >> i'm a republican but i'm saying the administration, i've had problems with the administration on different issues but what they are doing now is what has to be done. they would be derry likts if they're not. we can't criticize them for doing too little for benghazi and now too much. they learned from ben ghazi and now are firming up the embassies. as far as the worldwide alert i think it's warranted in this situation. >> senator saxby chambliss, ranking member of the intel committee said the nsa learned of the threat but critics of the surveillance program say they have their doubts. >> if you look at the one that's most at issue here, the bulk metadata program there's no indication, unless i'm proved

wrong later, that program which collects vast amounts of domestic data, telephone data, contributed to information about this particular plot. >> david ignatius, bring in here quickly, what are you hearing? >> well, i'm hearing from u.s. officials is first, this is al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, affiliate based in yemen, the affiliate that osama bin laden thought had the best chance of really being powerful and causing a long-term threat. the information is vague. it is from intercepts. although it's not, thank goodness, the meta data from the u.s. because there's no evidence of their being contact with somebody in the u.s. to be captured in that metadata. there's a reference in what's been heard to the enemy, not specific, which leads people to think it's probably the u.s., but could also be western europe. finally, there's some indication that what makes this so scary is that the chatter is going back

and forth in part between al qaeda in yemen and core al qaeda which is loosely based still in pakistan, the tribal areas, afghanistan, maybe even the top figure in al qaeda now with bin laden gone, amman zawahiri. this looks scarier than some of the chatter they pick up. >> put this in a perspective over the past ten years, let's say. it used to be we heard of the chatter going on around the clock. we had a discussion yesterday on "meet the press" about the about of al qaeda to still strike, compared to five, six, seven, ten years ago. is this the world our intel community live in constantly five years ago, six years ago? this is just news now because there's a re-emergens of chatter the likes of which we haven't heard in five or six years? >> joe, often in the past, the intelligence committee has picked up more specificity, real

plots, somebody coming at the united states, planning to take out the subway system in new york or planning some other kind of attack. sometimes what we picked are people in the midst of those attacks. think of the underwear bomber, mutallab who came to detroit in 2009. this is more -- is more general. i think if anything's changed it's that in the aftermath of the attack on our facility in benghazi and the deaths there of four americans and the continuing ha la ba lu from congress about embassy safety, people just want to err on the side of taking extra precautions. they don't have the same kind of specificity here they've had in other threats. what they have is significant personalities being involved in the threat stream and i think that's why they take it seriously. >> we are living in a post-benghazi world and benghazi drives so much of this. >> exactly. so richard haas, talk a little

bit about -- what's the president's for closing -- precedence for closing 22 embassies and this al qaeda resurgence. >> let me start with the latter. people are focusing on the u.s. reaction which i think is appropriate. the bigger story this is the new normal. this is now a middle east where you no longer have countries that are essentially controlled by their governments. it's been the case in pakistan for some time, which is why that was the real home base for al qaeda. it was the case for afghanistan. it's now the case for yemen. it's going to be the case, already is for libya. it is the case for syria, which has now become kind of the graduate school for terrorist training. i hate to say it, but this is now going to become less the exception. we have to -- we're going to hear chatter from more places more times and we're going to have to decide what is it we can do on a fairly regular basis, whether it's closing embassies or taking other measures, to make ourselves less vulnerable. this is not an exception. this is in some ways the inevitable results of a middle east that's increasingly

careening out of control where the problem is not strong governments but weak governments who are not in control of large things that go on within their borders. >> even with vague, nonspecific, generalized chatter? >> yeah. because often it's the volume, if you will, the quantity of chatter that's revealing and certain key words. you don't know at 9:00 at a certain place something is going to happen rarely happens. it's analysis of volume and certain words. i think we have to figure out how we can essentially stay open for business in a world where stuff like this happens more and more often. this is the new normal and it's frightening. >> we've got a lot of news to get to, including some big news in the world of publishing. to politics in kentucky, we now have a better idea what the u.s. senate race there will look like. >> it looks like -- it looks like a wishbone and mitch mcconnell is getting pulled at from both ends. >> oh, yeah.

mitch mcconnell was in attendance during saturday's 133rd annual fancy farm picnic in kentucky. but so were both of his challengers, democrat alison lundergan grimes and tea party favorite matt bevin. take a look. >> if senator mcconnell had his way, his version of kentucky health care, for our seniors, grandmother would be to walk it off. let's just tell it like it is. if the doctors told senator mcconnell that he had a kidney stone, he'd refuse to pass it. >> i don't intend to run to the right of mitch mcconnell. i don't intend to run to the left of mitch mcconnell. i intend to run straight over the top of mitch mcconnell and right into the u.s. senate and with your help we're going to do that. >> casey. >> my goodness. i must say. >> the kidney stone campaign. >> won't pass a kidney stone.

>> she had a lot of good ones. >> i was in the wrong place this weekend. i should have been down in kentucky. >> should come down with us. >> the bluegrass state where the grass is now turning red. i mean that's some rough politicking down there. >> i mean this event is sort of like none other nowadays. a throwback. there are tons of literally tons of barbecue, thousands of pounds of barbecue. >> another reason i should have been there. >> and they all shout over each other. the challenge as she's delivering her one liners, the whole crowd on mitch mcconnell's side is booing her all the way through. it's like the des moines soap box on steroids. >> now you interviewed grimes, right? >> i did. we talked all about the race and she, of course, she's at this point, kentucky is a very red state, as you say, the grass is turning red there. and she -- >> well i meant from mitch mcconnell's blood. >> back to the duel. >> back to the duel again. >> stop. >> but it's turning red from

having been -- the state government is still largely democratic. >> i love that. that looks great. >> that's barbecue. >> she got down in there. >> i see that. >> she was not afraid to -- she was not afraid. mcconnell refused to do that cited security concerns, couldn't come in -- >> security concerns? >> somebody would -- >> here's grimes. >> but i -- >> this is a campaign that's about kentucky. not washington. and we're going to run a campaign that all kentuckians can be proud of. it's about the relationships. someone who literally knows from boon kitten and campbell to pike and floyd to our river counties to the western part of the state where we are today what matters and that's putting kentucky first. >> she seems to have great composure. >> i had asked her if she wanted to -- if she wanted president obama to come down and campaign for her and that was her answer, was that this campaign is about kentucky. in short, not so much. >> she's trying to separate herself a little bit.

senator mcconnell chose to attack alison lundergan gims father, a former state democratic chairman. >> it's getting better and better. >> i want to say how nice it is, how nice it is, to see jerry hunter began balu lun -- lundergan back in the game. like the loyal democrat hi is he's taking orders from the obama campaign on how to run his daughter's campaign. they told him to make a pitch on the internet for the women's vote and he sent a check to anthony weiner. >> what? >> what? >> i don't know, but i love it. >> went after the dad. >> i don't know. i don't know. so anyway, but she seems to have a lot of composure. the tea party candidate what's his name? >> matt bev vin. >> he was sharp too. >> seemed pretty sharp. the question here is how viable are these two against mitch mcconnell. it's a red state and a tea party challenger. not sure how much money he's

going to raise, how much credibility in the end. he has to face mcconnell's oppo machine. he has to credible candidates. >> does he have money? does the conservative candidate have money, kay kasie? >> i asked him about that. we're still waiting to see his financial disclosure reports. he is a millionaire, probably doesn't have -- mitch mcconnell spent $21 million on his last race. an expensive proposition. waiting to see if clubs for growth in washington will go in for him. they made a difference for ted cruz in texas. >> think about it here if you're mitch mcconnell, he's a pro he's a fighter, he's going to fight to the bitter end, but think about it, he's getting pulled to the right in a state where rand paul beat his candidate in 2010. he openly opposed rand paul and lost. and you've got the ppp polls out and some other polls out that show that general election a dead heat. mitch will have to go to the right. >> yep. >> does he have to go so far

night i think he hired rand paul's campaign manager. >> he did. >> in the generale elections. >> lindsey graham, they have this, lamar alexander, mcconnell may have this. it's a big issue for the national republican party. >> yep. >> as they have purists which this happened to the democrats for 20 years and is now more -- happening more to the republicans at the moment. >> yeah. >> all right. now to "newsweek" which is getting a new owner again. it's still unclear -- >> a lot of publishing things going on. old media. >> i know. there's one hopeful story, we'll get to it later. but two big stories in old media. it's unclear if the iconic "newsweek" brand can carve out a spot in the digital world of journalism. the former weekly news magazine which published its final print edition in december was sold to ibt media for an undisclosed amount. "newsweek" which has changed hands several times has been operating most recently as a joint venture with the daily bea

beast. the new owner breaking apart that merger and returning the brand to its old website newsweek.com. "the new york times" is selling "the boston globe" to the owner of the red sox for $70 million. that is a fraction of the $1.1 billion paid for the newspaper -- >> i'm not good in math. went to alabama. >> do the math. >> that's not good, is it? 93% loss. if only we had somebody that was knowledgeable on these issues. >> yeah, exactly. >> worked for one of these places before. >> maybe had inside info. >> to "newsweek." richard. >> so, you know, it's getting tougher and tougher. weekly magazines getting tougher and tougher. it's a challenge for everybody. and, you know, newsweek.com made more sense than "the daily beast." in the world of branding, newsweek.com makes sense, doesn't it some.

>> "newsweek" where i worked for 16, 17 years, and left three years ago, is -- has -- faces particular challenges. the joke used to be, the two words were particular challenges. it was news, which wasn't particularly probable and week which was not the most digitally friendly -- >> with an "e." week with an "e." >> everybody has been trying now for a long time to make this work. founded in 1933. just in this world where both readership and revenue is on-line more defuse, a lot of these national publications and big metro publications made their money by being advertising vehicles for either the country as a whole or a metro area. newspapers have lost the classified, losing the car ads, losing even the department store ads. that's the newspaper side.

for a long time "newsweek," "time," u.s. world report and "the new yorker" to some extent had a monopoly. if you wanted to reach the country in print, there were only four or five places to go. >> yeah. >> that's broken apart and that's the central problem. >> david ignatius, it really is. it doesn't seem like it gets any easier. you look at our children, teenagers, young -- i mean, you know, even now, i always talk about my sons and the way they consume news, even now, if it's raining, i stare at my paper at the end of the driveway and i get out my ipad and i read the paper and, you know, i'll pick it up later in the afternoon. but i think not -- it's not even generational anymore. we all realized we can read these news stories throughout the day and usually -- basically, me going out and getting the sunday "new york times" and reading it, or "the wall street journal," that's comfort food at this point.

>> i would hate to think of you with no ink on your fingers on a sunday morning. >> usually have chocolate on my fingers at all times. >> but my -- i have three kids. they love to read news, but they read it on these tiny little phones. i mean it's the most amazing thing to walk into a dentist office or any public place and everybody's reading and they're reading these little tiny devices. "the washington post" is going big in mobile, so is "the new york times." that was the only hopeful media news the last week is that both "the new york times" and "washington post" had quarters that registered results profits in the case of the "new york times" in the news business, good results for "the washington post" that wall street loved. "the washington post" stock, my company where i work, is up 65% in the last year. so something is going right, i hope. >> you know, meacham still has

ink on his fingers but it's from being fingerprinted for all that tennessee moonshining. >> the revenuing. >> did you read newspapers? do you hold -- >> i get the sunday "new york times." i read the sunday "new york times." >> for kicks. >> a paper like "the boston globe" where would we have been with the boston marathon bomber without the team of reporters they had. >> here it is, what's happened is we have -- we have newsrooms, we have magazine structures, economically set for a different era. and so david is exactly right. "the new york times" has something like 700,000 digital subscribers but that's substantially less than what its print circulation was at its height. the cost structure has to come down and those two things have to meet and when you say cost structure that's ink, the trucks to deliver it, the paper, and the people and that's where this becomes incredibly difficult and where so many journalists and

managers are struggling. >> "newsweek," the globe, "the plain dealer" in cleveland cutting about a third of its sign. california, the orange county register is defying conventional wisdom in this conversation. they've doubled their newsroom staff despite focusing on print over digital and charging for internet interviews. it's -- it's focusing on original reporting and apparently is doing well. >> that's great. >> economists, the niche places, still a place for quality niche. >> kasie hunt, thank you so much. >> kasie, thank you so much. >> that was impressive. that was good. >> coming up on "morning joe," we're going to talk to "new york times" columnist frank bruni, andrea mitchell, bob costas joining us with the latest allegations surrounding alex rodriguez scandal. up next chris "mad dog" russo and the mayor of new orleans

mitch landrieu and dr. nancy snyderman join the discussion. the top stories in the politico playbook. first, dylan drier with a check on the forecast. >> good morning. we have rain falling across minneapolis. that's most likely area we'll see some delays this morning at the airports. also las vegas because of the wind. it's very windy out that way. reporting some delays. but that will improve pretty quickly. elsewhere, st. louis, chicago, new orleans, down through florida, it's all late day thunderstorms that will be the issue that could create some minor delays. you see the heavier rain moving across minneapolis but it is spreading eastward. we also have heavy rain across missouri and arkansas. flooding is going to continue to be an issue along the banks especially of the mississippi. for severe storms we're going to see them from southeastern montana to kansas, biggest threat large hail and damaging wind gust. temperature that's a big story. 74 degrees. that's it in chicago. nice and pleasant in the northeast. low humidity and highs around 80. you're watching "morning joe"

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very important, richard haas is. >> yes, he is. he's so important. >> billionaires -- >> president of the council on foreign relations. that's big. he has to catch a plane. 27 past the hour. >> always doing deals. >> i know. >> let's take a look at the morning papers. from our parade of papers, "l.a. times" a driver in los angeles is in police custody accused of driving into a crowded boardwalk killing one person and injuring 11 more. we want to warn you, this video is upsetting and the first angle is going to show the driver getting in a car and then taking off. the second angle will show the car from surveillance cameras in a restaurant.

the car comes careening across the top of the screen and into a crowd of people. nathan campbell turned himself in about an hour after the crash. the woman killed was honeymooning with her new husband from italy. >> i'm not sure we need to show that. "usa today" wide ranging review focused on sexual assault has caused 60 u.s. troops to lose their jobs as counselor recruiters or drill instructors. according to "usa today" the troops in question had records involving child abuse, sexual assault and alcohol-related offenses. the pentagon is conducting a massive review following a report last may that showed an estimated 26,000 troops had been sexually assaulted in 201. and in the smack down between cbs and time warner, well, it remains in a deadlock with blackouts of all cbs channels in new york city. los angeles and dallas.

analysts estimate cbs is asking for an increase of $1 per customer and time warner is saying it would force it to raise prices. industry insiders anticipate a resolution but it could take between ten days and six weeks to iron out. >> there you go. >> "washington post," potential federal criminal probe is reportedly under way involving virginia governor bob mcdonald. >> that's not good. >> the investigation stems from tens of thousands of dollars in gifts he and his family received from a major donor. according to the "washington post," mcdonald has recently said he is returning all the gifts and money to johnny williams, the ceo of health supplement company, star scientific. whims and his company are said to be cooperating with federal prosecutors. >> in the "usa today" japan sent the first humanoid robot into outer space. >> its name, ki row bo. willie and i were talking

before, it means hope. >> that's nice. >> in japanese. >> do you know what mika means? >> fish. >> no. >> what? what's it mean? >> it means -- never mind. >> love, charity? >> no. >> and the greatest of these. >> what does it mean, richard? you're so international. >> i have no idea. >> um carburetor. what does it mean? >> it means blooming flower. >> that's what willie and i were going to guess next. in "the washington post" since no one hit the powerball jack pot this weekend the money will roll over and create a $400 million on wednesday and i'm going to win it. >> right. >> the current would be the third highest powerball drawing ever. the tally behind the $590 million jackpot back in may. >> now i understand how you got elected to congress. >> how is that. >> 4-year-old bobby tufts of dorset minnesota will serve second term as mayor. it's a run that began when he

was only 3 years old. with the population of 28 people, the tiny town has no formal city government. his mother says his agenda includes raising money for the ronald mcdonald house charities. >> all right. now let's go to willie geist. for our politico moment. >> 4-year-old george geist off. he's the mayor of our house. the chief correspondent for politico mike allen with a look at the playbook. good morning. >> good morning mayor willie. >> i wasn't expecting to talk about beyonce or justin bieber but i guess we're going to do that. big draws when they come to d.c., obviously, and not just for kids and the jon meachams of the world but in the political world. how come? >> willie, increasingly popular place to hold political fund-raisers is in the sky boxes at the verizon center the biggest concert venue in d.c. when beyonce was here last week, sold out, you could get a ticket

from a scalpper or you could get a ticket from one of five congressional fund-raisers that were held up there. you mentioned bieber, also taylor swift, the stones, eagles, all of these have been the sites of political fund-raisers. up in the sky boxes so the artists aren't involved but it's a way for politicians to show their lighter, funner, younger side and it's a way to lure out people who maybe are sick of going to cocktail parties. a funny thing, a number of the older lobbyists around town say they don't like this setting. at the cocktail party at charlie palmers or the traditional ve e venues, you can chat with a congressman and get something done. at the concerts you don't get work done. it's all fun. >> i'm picturing some of the old, white haired guys in washington hanging out watching justin bieber concert. >> and beyonce. you know, willie, mika spent her weekend -- >> funny you say that. >> went up to a casino and mi

mika -- >> i had never been to the mohegan sun. it has a waterfall in it. >> one arm bandit. >> like four stories high. >> but mika this weekend went up and after she smoked -- >> unbelievable. >> all the cigarettes. took her 15-year-old daughter to watch beyonce. >> did you really? >> they loved it. >> did they really? >> yes. i have video of a cup until their 70s or 80s totally getting down. >> yeah. >> yeah. >> you loved it. thought it was a great concert? the kids loved it. >> you just loved it? >> i thought -- i just have -- >> you don't love beyonce. >> i love beyonce. i like her music. i think she's talented. >> very skeptical. >> might have been like the old geezer there. >> she slipped out halfway through and went back and started slots again. >> gambling. >> yeah. >> did you take the kids gambling with you? >> no.

but we walked through the casinos to get to the concert. it was a sight. >> people talk about dad tossing baseball at you, but for you, growing up, what was the moment that you and your dad shared that you remember? >> three words. caribbean stud poker. and it was just -- >> exactly. >> dad would throw his arm around you. >> hold on, willy. i'm tearing up. dad takes me home. >> smoking chesterfields. hit on that, kid. >> mike allen with a look at the playbook. sorry we got derailed there. >> blooming flower, have a great weekend. >> it's what we do. >> we'll see you. >> coming up, finally here, we talked earlier, official word of a-rod's suspension expected in a few hours. chris "mad dog" russo joins the table to break it down for us.

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with us now chris russo who headlines his own sports radio, xm mad dog radio. >> he's mad dog. >> i just had a great california vacation, going from san francisco to san diego, nothing

can bother me right now. >> you look tan. >> tan man. >> four kids driving down a coast of san francisco, monterey, l.a. and san diego. santa monica beach, waking up at 6:00 in the morning. took my 14-year-old to venice beach a week ago saturday, three on three, one basket wins and you pick any two guys you have with an ape nounnouncers and fa >> you were so in the weeds. >> i had to make four jumpers to win. >> do we want to talk about a-rod? come on baby. >> a-rod is a mess. >> so about noon today, he's going to get suspended expected rest of the season, next season. >> right. >> does he play again when he comes back? he will be almost 40 years old when the suspension is up. coming off two seasons where he didn't play or play a little bit, depending on how long he gets to ride out the appeal. >> i would think if he didn't have a huge contract he would not play.

he's going to have a huge contract, money coming to him. 30, 40, $50 million coming to him even after the 2014 suspension, so since he's going to be paid there's an opportunity he might be able to come out as a dh in the american league or whatever the case might be. he would be poison. he would be poison. since he's got so much money coming to him, i couldn't completely rule that out. he'll play. the worst thing that baseball has got going for them, say he comes back and all of a sudden and he hits and the yankees win games and play very well and the next 30 days make a playoff push and then he gets suspended and he's out, you're going to have people moaning and groaning this is ridiculous, he helped the yankees make the playoffs. that makes it a tricky situation for baseball. they don't want a-rod coming back and playing well and the yankees get their season salvaged and comes back and then gets suspended. >> you showed "the new york post." show the back of the "daily news" just shut up or suit up. you're a disgrace.

how did this relationship with "the new york post" turn so bad? >> his relationship with the country started with that contract he signed, ten years, $252 million with the texas rangers a decade ago. that was the big money we had never seen before. in new york, the standard is derek jeerts and so when alex rodriguez came in and didn't play well with derek jeter and started doing the cover shoots where he's taking his shirt off, it wasn't right for new york city and he didn't play within the yankees framework where they always say the franchise is bigger than the guy. >> when brian shactman did all those shirtless poses. >> i know. >> still getting "way too early." >> the ratings spiked. he was never a new york guy. >> i also put the '04 playoffs in the mix. not there in '03 and the '04 playoffs a-rod didn't hit in the last four games and the red sox came from 3-0 down to win the series. had he hit bronson arroyo and get the ball out of his glove --

i would put that in there too. >> no positive test. a chink in the armor, he never tested positive for steroids. there's no actual test. the union, they're not going to argue as long as they don't do that clause that got rose out of baseball. is that how it works some. >> first of all, baseball has so much information on a-rod it's ridiculous. 2010, 2011, 2012, a-rod on his blackberry making decisions with bosch, bosch gave them everything they wanted. a lot think he may have bought drugs from melky cabrera who got suspended last year. the union is not stupid. a, they see this overwhelming amount of evidence. half the players in the sport right now unlike ten years ago, don't want the steroids in the sport. if they defend a-rod they have 90% of their constituencies saying this is stupid, he's a cheat. how about me. you got that in the mix too. >> very interesting, costas, you probably saw bob costas on "meet the press" saying the player reps now, actually want these

guys just nailed to the wall. i think milwaukee's player rep was saying he wished ryan braun's entire contract could have been wiped out. >> right. >> that would really clean up -- >> and i thought braun got off a little bit. i thought he should have gotten more than 65 games. something for next year too. but baseball didn't want to deal with this dirty appeal process, but they don't want to make a deal with a-rod because he's such a mess and they're going to have to deal with this appeal process now. you have pennant race baseball in august and september, the yankees are a big story with a-rod and on the back pages every day the dirt they have on a-rod because there's an appeal process going on? as a yankee fan what would you like to see? like him to go? >> it's time he has to move on. the fans will boo him every time he steps on the field. distraction. jeter yesterday said the season is a disgrace not talking about his own injuries and performance but the a-rod stuff as well.

he's got to go from new york. if he finds a home somewhere in two years, almost 40 years old, god bless him. i don't know who will pick him up and pay him that amount of money. >> the yankees have to pay most of the contract. the yankees, can you imagine, today about 5:00 in chicago, here's a-rod, talk to the media and he has a ball game and been suspended two years it's a disaster. that's not what gehrig and dimaggio had in mind. >> it's not. he cheated. he needs to go, right? >> right. >> mad dog, great to see you. >> always a pleasure. joe -- >> thank you for the basketball story. >> that was cool. >> bob costas willing here to talk through it later on. "new york times" columnist frank bruni joins our conversation. he says it's a short line from anthony weiner to ted cruz. >> what? >> let him explain that. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: upbeat ]

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48 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe" on this monday morning. as the sun examincomes up over washington, d.c. time for the must-read opinion pages. here with us "new york times" columnist frank bruni and you write this past sunday the freak show [ inaudible ]. making a draw between ted cruz and anthony weiner? it's a short line from -- >> only one paragraph. >> i'm going to highlight that. it's a short line from anthony weener to ted cruz. once you edit out the erotica. does cruz throw so many bombs of high-minded ideological purity or because he's learned all the disruptive explosions turns heads and headlines his way?

i'm going with the explanation, because he certainly doesn't seem to be getting or trying to get much of anything done. his assertiveness, like weiner's, is an end in itself and you had choice words last week, joe, for ted cruz as well, just concerned that he might be a bit of a train wreck? >> well, and what i'm finding is, it's not just the headlines, but a lot of conservative members of congress and the house, people that, you know, 95, 97% ratings where they see you, are saying you know what, the guy is not only throwing these bombs to build his mailing list. >> yes. >> he's also making our life a living and breathing hell because the phones are ringing off the hook and demanding we shut down the government now. >> right. i think he's a big problem. you would know better than i. he's more disliked, more feared for the reasons you say by republicans than by democrats. >> right. >> when you have a party here, obviously this was -- >> democrats love him.

>> he's great for the democratic party. terrible for the republican party. he's everything they're supposed to be moving from if they're going to be more competitive in the future and he's grabbing all the headlines, all the tv time which is i think the question to ask, is he doing it for that in the piece, or ideological purity? the reason i draw a connection between weiner and cruz is i think we have a lot of politicians today, they're both examples of it, who seem addicted to attention more than anything else. >> and david ignatius, we've seen this happen in washington with michelle bachmann over the past several years. republicans have figured out -- michele bachmann raised 12, 13, $14 million for a congressional race which was unheard of and it is throw the bomb, get the attention, build the mailing list, raise money. >> at the end of the day, it's interesting, these very flamboyant characters in the republican party don't tend to win the nomination. i had a -- >> never win.

>> republican say to me the other week, look, if you look back, you see it's not the extremists who ends up winning, it's mccain in 2008, it's mitt romney in 2012, so as much noise as these people frank bruni rightly makes fun of as people who are just out to make headlines, they don't seem to end up being the decisive voices in the party. they can be spoilers and like you, i'm hearing house republicans just almost screaming, will somebody find a way for us to legislate and do something up here, rather than being trapped between the tea party and a speaker john boehner who doesn't want to take leadership. >> they don't win the nomination, but they spoil or tarnish the brand of the party along the way and that's the frustration for the republican party right now. >> the message for your party that you've been sending for quite some time now is three words, what are they? >> crazy never wins.

i wrote a column about it at the beginning of the 2012 process when they said herman cain, or this person or michele bachmann won a straw poll. it never happens that way. they build mailing lists and they make other conservatives -- put other conservatives in a very bad position and jon meacham, you've said this to me and i say it to other people now, you say, that sort of approach is a great starter. >> right. >> but a bad finisher. >> great starter. >> extremism, flamboyant to use david's words, great starter. >> frank, stay with us. david ignatius, thank you very much. >> thank you, david. >> willie geist, what do you have coming up next? >> we have the new coach. >> soccer. >> jason sudeikis has a new role on the sidelines of the english premier league. >> really? >> is that real? >> we'll explain next. >> it's funny. ♪ [ woman ] destination assist. this is ann.

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it's time. >> you in government? >> it's time. >> that's a bad one. >> get in government. >> look. >> you're a good one. >> time for news you can't use.

>> oh, my lord. >> jason sudeikis getting used to his post-"snl" career. he's taking to the internet to promote nbc's partnership with the english premier league. he plays an american football coach hired to turn around a professional soccer club in the uk. >> the first thing i had to do in getting this job was learn about the competition. we came up with the flashcard system in order for me to make american comparison to english teams. all i had to do was link what i don't know to what i do know. >> manchester united. >> super rich everybody loves them or hates them. >> dallas cowboys. >> liverpool, used to be great haven't won a title in a loening time. >> also cowboys. >> what's the hot game from the game of throwns. >> manchester city. >> jennifer lawrence. >> i guarantee we're going to beat the cowboys and jennifer lawrence. has there been a learning curve? i would say a little bit. >> understanding why the scores are low. look how tiny the goals are.

>> those are practice goals. >> knocked that ball off his head. is that legal. >> totally legal. >> hey, that's -- three points. >> no points. >> no point. why not? >> got to go in. >> come on rob, get it in there to get three points. >> one point. >> america is still learning the beautiful game. >> that will help. >> coming up next, economist dr. jeffe jeffery sacks joins us and bill bratton and nbc political director chuck todd. >> chuck winked at you. >> oh, god. >> wink again. >> the winker. >> he just did. >> and, of course, the great andrea mitchell. >> she's great. >> "morning joe" back in a moment. helicopthierhis hibuzzing, andk engine humming. sfx: birds chirping sfx: birds chirping i'to guard their manhood with trnew depend shields and guards.

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top of the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." frank bruni with us. >> beautiful shot. >> look at that. >> drink that in. tj, disneyland, because he would never come up with a shot -- >> wouldn't stay with a shot like that. it's too nice. >> gorgeous. >> we've got our "morning joe" chopper. >> we have the director of the earth institute at columbia university, economist dr. jeffrey sachs and in washington, nbc news chief white house correspondent and political director and host of "the daily run down" chuck todd. >> the winker. did he wink again? >> he did. >> did he wink again. >> why not. one more. >> it's creepy. and nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports" andrea mitchell. great to have you all at the

table today. >> no winking. >> our top story this morning, yankees manager joe girardi has alex rodriguez penciled in for tonight's game against the white sox as new york opens up three-game series in chicago. and that is probably the last good news a-rod will hear for a long time. the associated press reports major league baseball will announce today plans to suspend the yankee third baseman for 214 games citing multiple violations of the league's drug policy. however, depending on the specifics of the suspension, rodriguez may be able to continue playing while he appeals the league's decision. if the suspension holds, rodriguez will be out of baseball until 2015. that's possibly ending the 38-year-old's professional career given his age. >> so willie, it obviously -- the question is, whether -- how long the suspension is going to last. wherever the guy goes he's going

to be booed. he has the baseball equivalent of the mark of cane on him. >> he does. >> nowhere he can go. >> the reports are even if he gets a suspension he will be allowed to play while he appeals. imagine the circus that will follow him. tonight for starters. he will be in chicago at cellular field. it's going to be chaos. and then everywhere he goes the press will be following him. the national press corps. booing him on the road, probably at yankee stadium. >> terrible for the teams. >> bad enough season for the yankees. they say it's going to be the rest of this season and next year, at which point as we said earlier, if a-rod comes back for the 2015 season, he'll be approaching his 40th birthday. he's 38 right now. a 40-year-old who hasn't played for two seasons who's been broken down physically for years, who has all the suspicion around him, we may well have seen the last of alex rodriguez. >> it looks, chuck todd, like only one solution for the yankees, for a-rod and major league baseball, that is the los angeles dodgers. >> there it is. >> take his deal. >> actually, the dodgers, 14

stral straight wins on the road, a franchise record. a-rod, quickly -- >> my only question on this, and i have to say, i've done a 180 over the years on bud selig, i feel like they've done as much to clean up this game as they possibly -- after a lot of us fans beating the living daylights out of baseball for not trying to do this, you can't say that they're not trying and they're not doing this in a way that actually i feel like brings integrity back to the game. my only issue with a-rod, why did the yankees get off the hook when they signed him for this big contract, they already knew this was a guy that was tempted by steroids. he had already admitted it. so, you know, the idea that yankees get relief in this, is stshs -- it messes up the incentives. teams should be penalized if they knowingly give a big contract to somebody in the back of their head they're suspicious

of. maybe teams would police themselves better as well. >> i couldn't agree more. >> phil griffin said one of the reasons he's rooting for a-rod, this is such hypocrisy. the owners know the players are juiced. >> i agree. >> all about money. >> mcgwire running around with sammy sosa and everybody else, and everybody coming to see them hit home runs, 60 home runs, 65, 74 home runs, whatever it is, and so now they turn around and they act shocked. yeah, there's hypocrisy. bob costas will be talking about this later on this hour. i want to say bud selig too, starting with ryan braun, on a team he used to own, in milwaukee, and laying down that stiff suspension, i think selig really was showing that they're done -- >> we'll talk to bob costas in a few minutes here. he's getting here. 19 u.s. embassies will remain shuttered through next saturday as top u.s. lawmakers and intelligence officials warn of terror chatter reminiscent of the days before 9/11.

embassies spread across the middle east and africa closed over the weekend with fears of one large attack or a series of coordinated ones on u.s. diplomatic installations. security officials say the threat originates from al qaeda based if yemen. al qaeda and the groups it has backed have shown a resurgence in recent years from iraq to northern africa. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle defended the closures. >> i'm a republican but i'm saying the administration, i've had problems with the administration on different issues. what they are doing now what has to be done. they would be der re likts if they're not. we can't criticize them for doing too little for benghazi and now doing too much. they learned from benghazi and that's why they're firming up the embassies. as far as the worldwide alert, i think it's absolutely warranted in is the situation. >> bring in former police commissioner from los angeles, boston and new york, and now criminal justice analyst bill bratton. good to see you this morning. >> good to be with you.

>> this is on its face a little scary, hearing now through the rest of this week that these places will be closed, these embassies and other diplomatic posts. what do we know about the threat that the american public hasn't been told some. >> the fact that they're keeping them closed for the remainder of the week is affirmation that, despite the information they had, they don't have a specific date when this event or events were supposed to occur. this is reminiscent of all of their previous efforts, the embassy bombings in '98, attempted plane bombings, british airways planes, in that al qaeda likes multiple events and this seems to indicate that this might have been a multiple event type of attack. >> so what do we know? obviously we don't have all the information about what would lead to this kind of mass closure, but what would it take more broadly to shut down embassies in this way? >> well, effectively, let's face it, there is the reality that

this attack was real. it was imminent. the sourcing of the information really was much more than they normally have. so what they have done is certainly very prudent in terms of the shutdown. i know there's been reports that some of the embassies are concerned they were not on the identified target list and they are being shut down unnecessarily. i'm sorry these things you have to err on the side of caution and that's what's going on here. >> andrea, talking about caution, so much of this has to be shaped, obviously, by what happened in benghazi. this administration doesn't want something like that to happen again. so perhaps some would see this as an overreach but for an administration already still facing a crisis post-benghazi this seems like the prudent thing to do, doesn't it? >> it is a prudent thing to do according to all the analysts i've spoken to. the police commissioner is correct. let's face it, when they hit benghazi, benghazi's consulate,

not really a consulate, partly cover for the cia facility, mile or so away, the fact is, that they were being guarded by the september 17th militia, which is a group of locals who were affiliated with al qaeda and turned tail and ran as soon as the fights started and many believe that it was an inside job, that they were part of the operation, that they had helped map it for the terrorists. consulates that have been protected by the locals who don't have marines everywhere. we're not going to have marines everywhere. what they did in the decisions yesterday and last night, was to look at the most vulnerable and let the cobble kabuls and bagh reopen and then make sure they had the less defended facilities stay closed. >> commissioner bratton, al qaeda, obviously, used to be centered in afghanistan, pakistan, are we now looking at a terrorist organization that is

based centrally out of yemen. >> that's right. richard haas talked about this being the new normal. as a result of the turmoil that's going to continue unfortunately for years to come in that part of the world, al qaeda has, in fact, been strengthened. it has the ability to operate out many areas. yemen is effectively at the moment their headquarters for efforts directed against the united states and the operatives also that there's new generations coming into the mix. this isn't just the old guard. they're recruiting actively. 2,000 people were released or broken out of prison in july, many hundreds of them being al qaeda operatives, they're constantly being strengthened. the threat here in the united states from their efforts to basically radicalize the home-grown terrorists as we saw at the boston bombing case, that's the new normal for us. they have the ability to reach out into this country, they may not be able to bring plots into the country from outside, but

generate them from within the country. >> thanks very much for being with us this morning. >> thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. >> so continue, we see al qaeda moving, we chase them in afghanistan, they go to north africa, they go yemen all over the place. i mean it seems like we're constantly chasing shadows here. >> i don't think we really have a strategy, trillions of dollars later. we've been at this for more than a decade. i remember going to yemen, i was invited by the president of yemen about seven years ago. the place was a mess, but it wasn't al qaeda. i came back to washington and said there's a hunger crisis, a drought crisis, maybe some help, some attention. yemen, what do we care about yemen? we don't care about any of this stuff. then we end up with this kind of

vulnerability afterwards because we pay no attention to prevention beforehand. now we've got a colossal mess in egypt that spread, a colossal mess in west africa and frankly, case after case, there are things that should have been done beforehand that we don't do and we end now shuttering 20 -- >> following 20 embassies. i think it's incredible. i find it terribly depressing we can't keep the embassies open. there are americans in these countries that need embassy services and we're just closing down. it's weird to me. >> fortresses. >> not very strategic. >> no. >> let's get on to politics here in kentucky, we now have a better idea of what the u.s. senate race there will look like. minority leader mitch mcconnell who was in attendance during saturday's 133rd annual fancy farm picnic in kentucky, but so were both of his challengers,

democrat alison lundergan grimes and tea party favorite matt beven. >> if senator mcconnell had his way his version of health care for seniors, grandmother, it would be to walk it off. let's just tell it like it is. if the doctors told senator mcconnell that he had a kidney stone, he'd refuse to pass it. >> i don't intend to run to the right of mitch mcconnell. i don't intend to run to the left of mitch mcconnell, i intend to run straight over the top of mitch mcconnell and right into the u.s. senate and with your help, we're going to do that. >> chuck todd, right now it appears that mitch mcconnell is a political wishbone being pulled in both directions! >> that was quite a jab. >> that was -- what a smack down. >> kidney stone. >> that's one of the great political events in the country. it's just fun. it's good old-fashioned -- you go back to the old days when candidates -- that's how you

were tested to see how well you could do with some jeers, some hecklers, your own supporters, it was a little bit, but sort of old-fashioned stump speaking. i have to say i sort of enjoy watching all that from saturday. but look, mcconnell, look at what bevin said, he's pushing mcconnell. he said mcconnell has to be on this defend health care strategy. what is mcconnell going do in the fall debates. mcconnell is probably not going to -- probable ly not that vulnerable to a primary challenge. probably not that vulnerable but enough that he can't stick a finger in the right's eye. he can't make mike lee and ted cruz so mad that they use, you know, because those guys could use the primary challenger as a way of pushing mcconnell. and then the farther right he goes -- >> let me ask you that -- >> the more he helps grimes. >> the influence of mike lee and

mainly ted cruz on say cornyn, john cornyn who earlier was following him on a lot of things. are you starting to see a split that more of the mainstream republicans are not feeling like they have to follow ted cruz, marco rubio, mike lee, on every one of their adventures? >> well, i certainly agree that split is sitting there and it's the split between sort of the legislative republicans, legislative conservatives, lamar alexander, lindsey graham who want to get in there and do deals, the roy blunts of the world, they want to legislate, they're conservatives but they believe there's only so much you can do, you do the best you -- you get as much as you can, not as much as you want. i do sense. particularly cruz, you know, you hear this all the time. cruz gets under the skin of some of the republican senators. mike lee is the real intellectual force of the

conservative right there. >> yep. >> he's actually -- he's very well respected among his colleagues and it's interesting to me, i'm wondering how long this troika of cruz, paul and lee survives too much, because cruz is almost like trying to jump on and take sort of mike lee's thunder where it's mike lee's been the quiet one -- >> you're right. >> in a much more intellectual way than cruz ever has. >> mike lee has a lot more respect because people know that mike lee is doing it for reasons other than a future presidential contest. >> that's exactly right. doesn't look like he has his own political ambitions -- >> we had him on set. i agree with him on a lot of things. disagree on some things. he's quiet, soft spoken, knows what he's talking about. whereas, some of these other guys again, they seem to be posing. what's so interesting, frank, is again, i'm hearing from conservative house members, conservative house members, that

have 95, 96, 97% acu conservative ratings, that are saying, of ted cruz, this guy is making our life a living hell by pushing things that will never work, only strengthen obama, and they keep our people on the phone all the time -- and what they're angry about is, that he's doing it all to build his mailing list. >> yeah. >> so he can raise money and become a national candidate and basically the hell, not only with the republican party, the hell with the conservative moment. for anybody in talk radio or in the blog sphere that wants to say oh, joe, he's just an msnbc liberal. >> with a 95% acu rating, call conservative congressmen in the house and speak to them off the record, they're just as mad at what's going on as some moderate republican senator in the senate. democrats love this. curn servetives hate it. >> he's very transparent and a

tonal nightmare for the party. it is transparent for him. in the way he talks in the way he jumps on things he's there to get his face on the camera and voice heard and it's not about any legislating, any sort of coherent direction for the party. it's about the glorification of it ted cruz. i've seen few politicians in which is as transparent as with him. >> frank bruni, thank you very much. good to have you on. >> thank you, frank. >> chuck, we'll see you on "the daily run down" at 9:03 and andrea. dr. sacks, stay with us if you can. new orleans mayor mitch landrieu and dr. nancy snyderman will be here. up next bob costas with the latest details on the looming suspension of alex rodriguez. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. it's great.

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we were talking before, i want to finish up what we were talking about before, conservatives in the house, because this is painted falsely

like -- by a lot of people on talk radio and the conservative blogosphere, it's the moderate republicans against ted cruz and trying to shut down the government. i talked to a member this week and sort of understated, 95% conservative rating. this person i talked to this weekend that said that ted cruz's approach is destructive and is causing anger among house republicans, conservatives, has a 100% christian coalition rating, 100% concerned women for america rating, 100% eagle rating, and 100% club for growth rating. this guy is the conservative of conservatives. and he's saying, ted cruz is trying to build his mailing lists, he's destroying our brand, he's making it harder for us to win in 2014 and going to make it harder for us to win in 2016. this is not some left wing or moderate republican complaint.

this is the party and it's going to cause real problems moving forward i think for mr. cruz and the republican party. >> don't you hear that, too, about other members of the house. a lot of people in the house in the republican party thinking there was going to be progress on immigration reform and takes one person like steve king to come out and talk about [ inaudible ] all this work we did theto this point has been set back. >> we're starting to hear conservatives speak out against the nutty statements that didn't happen in the 2012 primary presidential primary campaign. and republicans paid for it. the brand has been absolutely destroyed by these lone wolves that decide they're going to build mailing lists, raise 12, 13, $14 million in congressional or senate races and the hell with the rest of the party's brand. >> okay. so now, this must be a big story. >> speaking of brands. >> because joining us now from los angeles, what time is it there? the host of "costas tonight" on

the nbc sports network. >> bob, what are you doing? >> this guy doesn't wake up before noon, willie. what's he doing? >> i'm at my best on two hours sleep. >> really? >> bob, you look thrilled to be here and we're thrilled to have you. >> we are -- >> thrill of a lifetime, willie. >> all right. bob we saw you on "meet the press" yesterday. walk us through a little bit about what's going to happen today. all the reports are that a-rod will be suspended the remainder of this season and rest of next season. he will appeal it, we're told, and be able to play while under appeal. what does his future look like here, bob. >> before we get to that. the big changes that everybody who covers baseball assumed up until late yesterday, bud selig would suspend him, yes, ri mandser of this season and all of next, under the terms of what's called the joint drug agreement and the collective bargaining agreement through the integrity of the game clause and

if that second was in effect, then the only appeal that would have been open to him would have been to the commissioner himself. so in effect, he could not have gotten back on the field until that appeal was heard and that appeal was not going to be reversed. whereas, if you choose to appeal a suspension based solely on the drug agreement, then you can continue to play while that appeal is pending. and so selig yesterday removed the possibility of a-rod being immediately removed from the field. that's why he can play tonight for the yankees in chicago. and play until the appeal is settled. and i think it's a smart move on baseball's part because it removes the argument that a-rod is being unfairly persecuted, he's being denied due process, that the alterer motive is to get the yankees out from under the contract. his case if he chooses to file a grievance will be heard by an

independent arbitrator and not bud selig. >> can you describe the relationship between or lack thereof between alex rodriguez and not only major league baseball but alex rodriguez and the new york yankees which has deteriorated to a point they've been taking public shots at each other over the last couple weeks and months. there's no goodwill here. >> i think the yankees players will almost all welcome him back pretty core yally. he's not the player he once was, but the yankees have been getting no production out of third base at all so even if he's the equivalent of an average major league third baseman he represents an upgrade. in the clubhouse and with the tone set in the clubhouse by joe girardi, that won't be that much of a problem if it's any problem at all for a-rod. the yankees are stuck with a bad contract. even if you didn't have the performance enhancing drug issue, a-rod's performance has declined and he's not worth the money the yankees have invested in him through 2017.

would it be a godsend for the yankees if they could get out under all or most of that contract? yes, it would. i don't think they're going to be able to. i think what's likely to happen is that the players association and a-rod's representatives might be able to drag the appeal process out for a while, say that we need time to prepare for it and he might be able to play in the 50 or so games remaining this season. but by no later than this offseason, the arbitrator will hear the appeal and he'll either uphold the suspension for all of 2014, or perhaps his arbitrators are known to do, shorten it a little bit but still wind up being a substantial penalty that he'll pay and the yankees will save a substantial amount of money as a result but they won't get out from under the entire $100 million or so that remains on the contract. >> brian shactman here, one is, the money since you talked about it, fans, they don't want to see

ryan braun keep all that money he's guaranteed. and when a-rod comes back, somehow he's owed that money. is there a way to change the way contracts are done in this sport, to find a way to use that as the deterrent some i know the union would probably fight any change like that, but clearly -- >> yeah. >> these guys keeping the money is a fundamental problem to this whole thing. >> i talked about that yesterday on "meet the press," and a number of players, including max scherzer of the detroit tigers who is their player representative has suggested that if a player is found to have used performance enhancing drugs and if he's had a fair hearing and due process, that the team should be able, at its discretion, to void a long-term contract. and when you really think about it, the momentum for that is on baseball's side. >> you think the union would actually go for that? >> the union might attempt to blunt it, but really, they have no logical argument. because the union now has come around to saying look, while

we'll do fend players if we think for some reason they may have been falsely accused or try to mitigate the penalty, we're not trying to soft pedal the severity of the problem. we're on the side of solving the problem. that's a big change from the way the players association used to approach it. and now you're having more and more players who used to abide by a code of silence even if they weren't using and they were at a competitive disadvantage while others were up, now you're having more and more players being bluntly outspoken and saying look, we want to get this out of the game or come as close as possible to getting it out of the game and a lot of them are in favor of more severe penalties. so suppose baseball was to say, this is what we propose. we propose if a guy is found to have used performance enhancing drugs he has either signed his contract under fraudulent circumstances, he's guilty of fraud, we thought we were getting something we're not truly getting or he's violated the contract in the middle by

beginning to use performance enhancing drugs. in either case, that's a valid reason to void the contract. that doesn't throw the guy out of the game. another team could sign him for as much or more if they wanted to. but it gets the current team out from under if that's their choice. that's a tremendous disincentive to performance enhancing drug use. you mentioned ryan braun for example. he's going to lose $3 million and that's not chump change but he still has some $100 million left on the contract. if there was a possibility to void the whole thing, a guy might think twice. >> all right. you can catch costas tonight on the nbc sports network. >> i don't think he's going to be up tonight. >> i'm not going to be up tonight. i'm not going to be up in ten minutes. >> my goodness. >> all right. >> bob costas, thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> you're welcome. >> still ahead, gold medal winning skater caterina witt. it's the subject of a new espn documentary. and we'll get a preview when she

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36 past the hour. long-time nbc news correspondent john palmer has passed away

after a sudden illness. he was 77 years old. andrea mitchell, you worked alongside john for many, many years. >> it was one of the great privileges. he lit up a room. he was the great news man, great writer, foreign correspondent, "today" show anchor. this was an extraordinary man and also the great love of nancy palmer and his three daughters. john palmer. >> from this area in the southeastern suburb in beirut. >> reporter: from beirut to washington john palmer was the rare soul in the rough and tumble world of news. smart, brave, always courtly, a southern gentleman cloaked in the trench coat of a dashing foreign correspondent. >> as one person put it, paris without the eiffel tower is like a frenchman without wine. >> reporter: he covered wars, summits and politics in the field and from the anchor desk on "today." >> this is "today." >> in the news this morning. >> reporter: the pride of kingsport, tennessee, he got his first break in atlanta in 1960,

just two years later he joined nbc news, where he would spend the better part of the next 40 years. >> at times the fighting has been heavy with both sides using mortars and machine guns. >> reporter: in the early years his assignments were dangerous and gritty, based in tel aviv, beirut and paris, covering the arab/israeli wars and civil war in lebanon. >> the subject of that meeting -- >> reporter: until 1979 when named nbc news white house correspondent, covering five presidents, jimmy carter, ronald reagan, both bushes and bill clinton, but may have been this moment that defined his career, april 25th, 1980. >> this is an nbc news special report. >> reporter: john learned that carter administration was attempting to rescue the american hostages in iran and it failed. the president asked him to hold the story until the teams were safely out of iranian territory. >> the rescue mission had been aborted and eight americans had died. >> reporter: in 1982 john joined the "today" show family where he spent seven years alongside bryant gumbel and jane pauley,

guiding us all through moments of triumph and tragedy. >> there was a huge, bright ball of fire and explosion. >> reporter: john loved sinatra, golf and fishing. ♪ fly me to the moon >> reporter: a week ago john was singing. ♪ fly me to the moon >> reporter: now after a short, sudden illness he is playing among the stars. >> and john palmer had a huge influence on everyone in our news organization and now his daughters, two of his three daughters, are working here at nbc, molly and hope, and our thoughts are with nancy and carter and lee and all the people he loved so much. >> andrea mitchiell, thank you o much. you can't always predict disaster but prepare for it. dr. judith roden joins us with the mayor of new orleans mitch landrieu to announce a ground-breaking initiative, next on "morning joe."

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with one towelette. can your makeup remover do that? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® makeup remover. welcome back. at 42 past the hour, here with us now, new orleans mayor mitch landrieu and judith rodin president of the rockefeller foundation, together they're working to make cities more resilient when disaster strikes. something we all have covered here. $100 million up for grabs, judith, and how does it work? >> well, we know that cities really are ground zero, populations are growing. in the u.s. alone, 23 of 25 counties are most densely populated are all on coasts. we've got to help cities. the storm surge in new york, katrina, the floods. this is a global issue and

global problem and mayors have been solving these problems but everybody is kind of figuring out their own solution. so this is to take 100 cities globally and link them around the world, not only so they can share best practices, but that they can really receive a suite of services that we'll be providing by the rockefeller foundation. how to get innovative financing from the private sector, what kinds of big data solutions help you assess your vulnerability, what kind of land use planning and infrastructure investments do you need to make. >> i gather now there's no template for this and, mitch, this would be useful how, compared to what you've been dealing with in the past? >> rockefeller has been great and they've been there for the people of new orleans since katrina and gnaw for -- and thank you for that. we've become kind of laboratory for innovation and change as a consequence of katrina. we had katrina, ike, gustav, the bp oil spill and one of the

things we realized we weren't ready, we weren't resilient. resilience is number one being strong, but being prepared to bounce back no matter what comes your way. that's really the whole ball game there. one of the the igs we've learned over time is where the gaps were and rockefeller has been helping us find out how to fill those gaps and not just what to do, but actually how to do it and create a template that best practices and other mayors in the cities have begun to look at from sandy perspective, you've seen some of these here and the idea is to bring all these cities together, create this tem plate and get -- template and get us all working together and stronger. >> in both those events that plagued your area, wasn't it government response that was the biggest sort of hurdle? >> the first question is why did it happen and one, the levees broke. the infrastructure wasn't strong enough. then in terms of the response, why didn't the response work? well, similarly in the report after 9/11, no clear command and control, no coordination, no communication. did you have an ability to respond really well and when everybody got hurt was somebody

else there to help? those kinds of things, we need to get a lot better at in every city. now we're building, you know, barriers that protect us that come in. so there are all kinds of gaps in the system we have to work through together and we're going to use this challenge to figure that out. >> i would argue it's more than government response. i co-chaired the commission for governor cuomo's on new york's recovery from sandy. we were ready and after 9/11 we had all kinds of intergovernmental responses. we put the generators in the basement because we thought we would get hit from the air. we don't have waterproof buildings. didn't build roads that could absorb water quickly and release it more slowly. these are practices and lessons that have to do with how you spend your money. >> in retrospect some of them are so basic. >> just a great initiative. really fantastic. to connect the dots it's happening all over the world, and it's part of this climate change story as well. when we had sandy, the storm surge in new york and the east

coast was because the sea level is one foot higher. that's because of long-term climate change. when you have disasters like katrina, these huge storms, whether that one or not was due to long-term climate change, we're getting a lot more of those all over the world, so we're seeing floods in cities around the world, we're seeing terrible heat waves as we've had in the united states, mega droughts and cities have to be resilient, they have to be ready. but also we have to head off this stuff. >> exactly. >> are we attacking the wrong problem? >> we can't be patching up all the time. that's why it was so great, had the pleasure to be with mayor mitch in the lower ninth last year, when they were putting in solar panels to get into new kinds of energy systems in the schools there and that's the kind of long-term change that we need to have. so we need resilient, preparedness, but we have to head off the climate change which is causing these disasters. >> right. >> we've been in denial in this country. >> we have. >> for years. we can't be in denial anymore.

we can't afford to be in denial. $20 billion price tag for patching up that mayor bloomberg has put on the table, but $60 billion of damage from hurricane sandy, we can't afford this stuff. >> what we have in new orleans is actually the opportunity to rebuild in a way that addresses both problems. >> yes. but the question is, how. this is why the rockefeller foundation's involvement is so incredible. they've come in, philanthropic communities, bringing the private sector in, mayors are not waiting on the federal government, to create other partnerships. that's why this is unbelievable and helpful to us. >> all the innovation is going on, on the ground with mayors. you know as we see this happening here, i mean, new orleans, new york, san francisco, theirs will be an earthquake, they're preparing for it, so it is really building resilience is about one kind of prevention and then mitigation is about another kind of prevention. but let's stop spending the money after the fact. >> in the wrong places. >> right. >> you're smart to go to the mayors and governors because

they actually have to do something. >> yeah. they get it done. truly. >> dr. judith rodin and mayor mitch landrieu, thank you so much. it's great to have you both on. up next, a diplomat, how olympic skater katarina witt broke records and barriers during the politics of the cold war. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. i'm tony siragusa and i'm training guys who leak a little, to guard their manhood with new depend shields and guards. the discreet protection that's just for guys. now, it's your turn.

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tempo. tempo, tempo, tempo. >> she only works with the best. whoever she chooses, she sees raw talent. she sort of picked me, said i think she can make it. always the one cracking the whip and making sure i would work hard enough but at the same time, she was wonderful. >> that was two-time olympic gold medal figure skater

katarina witt in the upcoming movie "the diplomat," the latest in the espn 9 for 9 series. she joins us now. it's great to have you on the show. >> good morning. >> it's amazing looking at that video. i want to actually go backwards and start with 1984 and answ'88n you won the gold. you were under more pressure than people might have even assumed. what was the difference between gold and silver for you? >> the difference definitely is most of the time you say you lose gold and you don't say you win silver, so definitely being on this level, you really want to go and win the gold, and it was really important for me, especially my second gold medal in calgary, because it was really about, am i allowed to keep skating or should i stay in the country for the rest of my life. >> you couldn't leave the country unless you won the gold? >> yes. little did i know the wall would

come down a year later. >> did you have any idea? >> no, that's pretty amazing. tell us about your coach. you're talking a little about her in the documentary. what an incredible bond. >> she discovered me when i was 9. of course i was a little girl. she stayed with me for the rest of my career. i think it's not easy to discover somebody who's a girl and then go through the time when you grow as a woman and everything that comes to become a woman and she was a tough woman, tough cookie. but i guess i was one of those who needed -- you know how i say she used to crack the whip but any athlete in this class you ask, you know a coach is so important and a coach on your side who pushes you and pushes you. >> there's so many questions i have for you. the east german sporting culture has been often satirized in this country. what i want to start with, we talked about off camera, when the wall came down and you got

your freedom, you came to new york, you said, i was really too young to enjoy it. you almost had to relearn how to have a since of adventure. >> learn how to enjoy my free m freedom. i had my freedom within my sport. i was lucky enough because i was promoted there. coming to new york here now, and i wasn't here for the last few years, and staying in my neighborhood where i lived. i realized walking places and realizing that yes, it was in the '90s, i was in my 20s. it took a few years to really learn how to enjoy your freedom. how to walk alone on the streets without having somebody watching you or always -- >> and you were watched? >> yeah. >> they had files on you, the secret police, and they followed your every move. >> they did, since i was 8 years old. they thought she could be a talent and we'll watch her until the wall came down basically. >> how do you feel about young people in germany that don't know the history of what you

went through? are they interested? are they curious? >> it's a mixture of -- in some ways, it's great that they grew up with a completely different sense of democracy and freedom. and i feel, in a way, fortunate, that i had both, you know, that luckily the sport was supported so i became this two-time olympic champion in the system which helped athletes. so this way, this was a plus. now, of course, with all the changes and young people growing up in a different kind of country, it's great to see. on the other hand, nice to see when they ask questions, you know, and then you answer and they still don't understand -- >> it's hard to imagine. >> you had the berlin wall, the chinese wall. >> the diplomat, part of espn's 9 for 9 series premieres tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. katarina witt, thank you so much. you're here for another reason

besides the christmas tree lighting. see, things change. >> fantastic to see the place in the summer. >> look forward to seeing this. still ahead, why you might want to get that hip replacement that you've been waiting for, maybe putting it on, on your next vacation when you go to belgium. "the new york times" libby rosenthal is here with her piece on patients being priced out of the u.s. [ male announcer ] this is bob,

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♪ you say you want to be a role model for your daughters. if one of them asks you, daddy, did you cheat, how would you answer? >> i plan to sit my girls down with cynthia. we'll have a lengthy conversation. i'll have an opportunity to tell it all at some point. i'll have that platform. and when the time is right, i'll tell my full story. thanks, guys. >> good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. as you take a live look at new york city. welcome back to "morning joe." wake up. back with us on set, jon meacham, richard haass and david ignatius. >> as a fan, this knees me greatly. >> you got to be glad this guy

is going to get yanked. >> your second pun of the morning. it may go on a little longer because he's appealing the suspension that will be announced today. he'll be gone before the end of the season. he'll then be gone all of next season. effectively, his baseball career, i would say, is all but over, except for possibly a year and a half from now, two years from now, he might play for somebody but i doubt it will be the yankees. >> jon meacham talked about the proportionality of it. the president of this esteemed network said this is hypocritical because he says owners have been making billions of dollars off these cyborgs for years, that they know have been juiced. now suddenly it's the casablanca scene. >> they're shocked. there's gambling going on here? and they're going to yank him for life. a-rod's just not a well-liked guy. he's just -- andy pettitte was caught juicing and he was a

stand-up guy about it. he said you know what, i had an injury and i did it to recover faster in the off season and i'm real sorry. all these other clowns have lied about it top to bottom. >> i believe it's cheating. when youly a game for a living and you cheat at it, you're out. isn't that how it works? >> he could be the lineup tonight. i may be a ticket just to go out and boo him. we've got a lot of really, really smart guys here. >> yeah. >> and women. >> thank you. >> in case you were -- before the show started. she's throwing stuff around. >> it was ugly. >> meacham, wasn't it ugly? >> i was uncomfortable. >> even as an historian, there is no historical contest to put this tirade in. >> andrew jackson fought a duel that was not disisimilar. >> because i'm an orioles fan? >> 19 u.s. embassies will remain

shuttered through next saturday as top u.s. lawmakers and intelligence officials warn of terror chatter reminiscent of the days before 9/11. embassies spread across the middle east and africa closed over the weekend with fears of one large attack or a series coordinated ones on u.s. diplomatic installations. security officials say the threat originates from al qaeda based in yemen. al qaeda and the groups it has backed has shown a resurgence in recent years from iraq to northern africa. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle defended the closures. >> i'm a republican. i'm saying the administration -- i've got problems with the administration on different issues. what they're doing now is what has to be done. they'd be derelict if they were not. we can't criticize them for doing too little for benghazi and now doing too much. as far as this worldwide aletter, i therng it's absolutely warranted in this

situation. >> senator sax buy chambliss the ranking member of the intel committee, said the nsa learned of the threat. but critic of the surveillance program say they have their doubts. >> if you look at the one that's most at issue, the bulk meta data program, there's no indication, unless i'm proven wrong later, that that program which collects vast amounts of domestic data contributed to information about this particular plot. >> david ignatius, what are you hearing? >> i'm hearing from u.s. officials, first, this is al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, the affiliate that's based in yemen. it was the affiliate that osama bin laden thought had the best chance of really being powerful and causing a long-term threat. the information is vague. it is from intercepts. although it's not, thank goodness, the meta data from the u.s. because there's no evidence of there being in contact with

somebody in the u.s. and being captured in that meta data. there's a reference to being heard from the enemy, which leads people to think it's the u.s. but could also be western europe. what makes this so scary is that the chatter is going back and forth in part between al qaeda in yemen and core al qaeda, which is loosely based, still, in pakistan, the tribal areas, afghanistan. maybe even the top figure in al qaeda now, with bin laden gone, ayman al zawahiri. so this combination of things makes it looks to people scarier than some of the chatter they picked up. >> can you put this in perspective over the last ten years, let's say, it used to be that we heard of the chatter going on around the clock. we had a discussion yesterday on "meet the press" about the ability of al qaeda to still strike compared to five, six, seven, ten years ago. is this the world our intel community lived in constantly

five years ago? this is just news now because there's a re-emergence of chatter the likes of which we haven't heard in five, six years? >> joe, often, in the past, the intelligence community has picked up more specificity, real plots, somebody coming at the united states, planning to take out the subway system in new york or planning some other kind of attack. sometimes what we've picked up are people in the midst of those attacks. think of the underwear bomber, abdul mutallab, came to detroit in '09. in anything's changed, it's the aftermath of the attack in our facility in benghazi and the deaths there of four americans and the continuing hall a ba li from congress, people want to err on the side of taking extra precautions.

they don't have the same kind of specificity here that they've had in other threats. what they have is significant personalities being involved in the threat stream. i think that's why they take it seriously. >> we're living in a post-benghazi world. >> exactly. >> pen ghazi drived so much of this. >> first of all, what's the president's, for closing 22 embassies, and this al qaeda resurgence? >> let me start with the latter. i think that's the bigger story. people are focusing on the u.s. reaction which i think is totally appropriate. to me the bigger story is this is the new normal. this is is now a middle east where you have countries no longer controls by their governments. the case in pakistan for some time. the real home base for al qaeda. was the case for afghanistan. now the case for yemen. it's going to be the case, already is, for libya. it is the case for syria which has now become kind of the graduate school for terrorist training. i hate to say it, but this is now going to become less the exception. we're going to hear chatter from more places, more times.

and we're going to have to decide, what is it we can do on a fairly regular basis, whether it's closing embassies or taking other measures to make ourselves less vulnerable. this is not an exception. this is in some ways the inevitable result of a middle east that's increasingly careening out of control, where the problem is not strong governments but its weak governments who are not in control of large things that go on within their borders. >> even with vague nonspecific, generalized chatter? >> yes, because often it's the volume, the quantity of chatter that's somewhat revealing and certain key words. you don't necessarily know at 9:00 at a certain place something's going to happen. rarely happens. it's much more analysis, if you will, of volume and certain words. again, i think we're going to have to figure out how we can eventually stay open for business in a world where stuff like this happens more and more often. this is the new normal, and it's frightening. >> in kentucky, we now have a better idea what the u.s. senate

race there will look like. >> it looks like a wish bone and mitch mcconnell's getting pulled at from both ends. >> mitch mcconnell was in attendance during saturday's 133rd annual fancy farm picnic in kentucky. but so were both of his challengerings. democrat allison lunder began gri alison lundergran grimes. and senator mcconnell. take a look. >> his version of health care for our seniors, our grandmothers, would be to "walk it off." let's just tell it like it is. if the doctors told senator mcconnell that he had a kidney stone, he'd refuse to pass it! >> i don't intend to run to the right of mitch mcconnell. i don't intend to run to the left of mitch mcconnell. i intend to run straight over the top of mitch mcconnell and

right into the u.s. senate and with your help, we're going to do that. >> casey, my goodness. i must say, i have a kidney stone campaign. wouldn't pass a kidney stone. >> she had a lot of good ones. >> i was in the wrong place this weekend. i should have been down in kentucky it the bluegrass state. where the grass is now turning red. i mean, that's some rough politicking down there. >> i mean, this event is sort of like none other. it's a total throwback. there are tons of barbecues. thousands of pounds of barbecue. >> another reason i should have been there. >> and they all shout over each other. the challenge, as she's delivering her one-liners, the whole crowd on mitch mcconnell's side is booing her. >> you interviewed grimes, right? >> we talked all about the race. she of course -- at this point, you know, kentucky's a very red state, as you said, the grass is

turning red there. and she -- >> well, i meant from mitch mcconnell's blood. >> back to the duel again. >> it's also turning red from having been -- >> the state democrat -- >> can we have that? >> i love that, that looks great. barbecue. >> hey, she got down in there. you know, she was not afraid to -- mcconnell on the other hand refused to do that. he cited security concerns. he said he couldn't come in and -- >> security concerns? >> here's grimes. >> this is a campaign that's about kentucky, not washington. and we're going to run a campaign that all kentuckiens can be proud of. it's about the relationships. somebody who literally knows from boone and campbell, floyd, to the western part of the state, what matters, and that's putting kentucky first. >> she seems to have great composure. >> i had asked her if she wanted president obama to come down and

campaign for her. that was her answer, is this campaign is about kentucky. so in short, not so much. >> she's trying to separate herself a little bit. senator mcconnell chose to attack grimes' father, a former state democratic chairman. >> it's getting better and better. >> i want to say how nice it is, how nice it is to see jar lundergann back in the game. like the loyal democrat he is, he's taking orders from the obama campaign on how to run his daughter's campaign. they told him to make a pitch on the internet for the women's vote and he sent a check to anthony weiner! >> what? >> i don't know but i love it. >> went after the dad. >> i don't know i don't know. so anyway, so she seems to have a lot of composure. the tea party candidate -- what's his name? >> he was pretty sharp too.

>> the question is how viable are these two candidates against mitch mcconnell. it's a tea party challenger. we're not sure how much money he's going to be able to raise. he's got to face mcconnell. i am convinced he has two -- >> does the conservative have money, kasie? >> we're still waiting to see his financial disclosure reports but he is a millionaire. mitch mcconnell spent 21 million on his last race so it's going to be a really expensive proposition. we're waiting to see if groups like the club for growth in washington will go after him. >> think about it, if you're mcconnell, mitch is a pro, he's a fighter, he's going to fight till the bitter end. think about it, jon meacham, he's getting pulled to the right in a state where rand paul beat his candidate in 2010. i mean, he openly opposed rand paul and lost.

and you've got the ppp polls that are out and some other polls out that show the general election a dead heat. mitch is going to have to go to the right. does he have to go so far right that it hurts him a little bit in the general election? >> exactly. lindsey graham may have this. lamar alexander may have this. it's a big issue for the national republican party. as they have purists. this happened to the democrats for 20 years and is now happening more to the republicans at the moment. >> coming up on "morning joe," the feminists of zion. the cover story of "the new republican." its author dahlia lithwick joins us. up next, paying till it hurts. elizabeth rosenthal hear to talk about her piece in "the new york times" about how people are heading oversea, to save money on medical procedures. >> you see that story? >> yeah, i did. >> mike jones over to get his

hip done. >> belgium, i believe. it was unbelievable, the numbers. first, here's dylan dwyer with a check on the forecast. >> rain in the middle of the country from minneapolis stretching down to the st. louis area. those are going to be your troubled spots for traveling, especially this morning at the airports where we could see some minor delays in minneapolis and later on this afternoon in st. louis. rest of the areas across the gulf coast states and into florida those would be late-day thunderstorms. it shouldn't be too much of an issue. heavy rain is moving now into southeastern iowa. we're also seeing the potential for more flooding today in kansas and missouri where flood warnings and flash flood warnings have been posted. we could also see some stronger storms later this afternoon and evening from montana right down into kansas it biggest threat would be for hail and gusty winds. elsewhere, it's about the cooler temperatures. chicago will be about 10 degrees below average. in the northeast, low humidity, temperatures around 75 to a gorgeous 80 degrees. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. at farmers we make you smarter about insurance,

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♪ 20 past the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." joining us on set, "new york times" correspondent libby rosenthal. also with us, nbc news chief medical editor dr. nancy

snyderman. thank you for being with us. >> "the times" yesterday, i got to go to belgium for my hip. ways going on there? >> it's a lot cheaper to go to europe for your hip to a really high quality hospital there than to stay here. >> i thought when i first saw the numbers, i thought, okay, you'll still pay for the plane ticket and everything. even with the added cost of traveling there, the prices are dramatically different. >> yes, i think the most striking correlation is michael choppen went to belgium for his hip for $13,000, everything included, including the plane ticket. and that cost here, that price here, would only buy you the implant. so there's a huge difference. >> dr. nancy snyderman, why? >> well, there's sort of a consortium, a monopoly, if you want to consider it, on implants that are made in the united states. and i have to say, medicine is the only field i can think of that as innovation progresses, prices go up. they don't come down.

anything else you look at, telephones, coulmputers. either other commodity goes down except medicine. no one has tackleled this series of medical problems with regard to economics and cost/benefit ratio better than she has in her articles. i think it points out the weakness with the american medical system and sadly so. >> i guess the other question would be if someone's making a decision like this, maybe it's better quality here in the u.s. and that's why it costs more. >> well, studies have never shown that higher costs correlate to better quality in u.s. medicine. so i think -- talk to people like michael choppen, they had a great experience. and talk to our 800 commentators who also talked about their experience overseas. also, almost to a one, excellent care. >> she writes this in well, in the united states, nearly all hip and knee implants are made by five companies which some

economists describe as a cartel. manufacturers tweak old models and patent the changes as new products with even bigger price tags. the basic design of artificial joints has not changed for decades. but increased volume, about 1 million knee and hip replacements, are performed in the united states a year it and competition has not lowered prices as would typically happen with products like clothing or cars. >> the marketplace, john, is so distorted. it's just -- there's nothing capitalistic about our health care system. >> it's an irrational market. by every standard it on the belgium example, is there a clear policy difference between the american system and the systems where people might be shopping for i guess this would be surgery travel? >> yes, there's a huge difference. it varies from country to country. people often say, oh, well, they're socialized medicine. that's not true.

there's just some level of government intervention. most of the hospitals are private. most doctors work for themselves. but the government doesn't allow runaway pricing. they regulate medical pricing as they would regulate a utility like electricity rates. >> if someone's listening or watching or what have you and says, okay, good idea, there have to be countries that are better than others. it seems also fraught with danger on the downside. if you want to go for a nip and tuck in argentina or something, you know? >> you bring up a good point. there are some countries i absolutely wouldn't go for surgery. india has stepped into the medical tourism spot. they've provided high-quality care, low infection rates, good outcomes at a fraction of the price it some places in india also surround people with a spa environment. the man who she wrote about was a little leery about going to india so he went to brussels. germany, france. a lot of countries.

these surgeons are extraordinarily well trained. they are in private practice. there are caps for how runaway the surrounding costs can be. i think the one thing americans would be surprised about is that the surroundings in a lot the hospitals are rather spartan. if you go to a german or belgium hospital, you're not going to see the bells and whistles of shops and waiting rooms and chapels. but the quality of care still as good, perhaps even better. >> just overall, nancy, i have a couple of friends who have had hip replacements and love them. it's not your grandmother's hip replacement anymore. i guess the products haven't changed that much but the ability to to tdo the surgery w across the board has? >> the implants have changed remarkably over the last 20 years. they are really good. 20 years ago, probably better off with what mother nature gave you. not so anymore. the surgical techniques are better it as baby boomers age. and we pay for the hits we took

as adolescents, you are going to increasingly see hips and knee replacements, total joint replacements, being increasingly common. >> what was so striking about "the new york times" front page article, you had a guy, 60, 70 years old, talking about hip replacements, and he's an avid snowboarder. >> he had his hip replacement done when he was 60. so he was pre-med care age. he had to pay out of office because his insurance didn't cover his pre-existing condition. he was the best medical consumer. me researched devices. he researched infection rates. he realized he couldn't afford it in the u.s. he found a great place to get it done. >> unbelievable. >> libby rosenthal and dr. nancy, thank you so much. coming up, how feminists are rising up against the growing influence of ultraorthodox judaism in israel. dahlia lithwick and frank ford join us with this edition of

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30 past. here with us from washington, d.c., editor of the new republic, frank foer and journalist dhalia lithwick. she spent the past year in

jerusalem and co-wrote the cover story, the kwfeminists of zion. rising up against the ultraorthodox jews in israel. looks fantastic. tell us who these women are. >> it's such an interesting story. it's essentially a group of women who call themselves modern orthodox. that's distinguished from what in israel is called the ultraorthodox jews. they cover their heads. they wear long skirts. they keep sabbath. they keep kosher. but they live in the modern world. they live in a town called beit shamath, just outside jerusalem, and have seen the town taken over by an ultraorthodox sect that's quite intolerant of the way they live their lives. many have experienced violence. a woman had a rock thrown at her head just for biking down the street. they've started to push back. in incredibly radical ways. it was inspiring to kind of meet

them and hear their story. >> can you describe the ways in which they're pushing back? >> yeah, i mean, it's -- these are women who don't see themselves as feminists. they work. they are political, but they don't see themselves as feminists. and yet they hook up with lawyers from the reform movement, which is sort of the far left of the jewish spectrum, and they begin to bring this lawsu lawsuit, which is essentially challenging in this town of beit shamath posted modesty signs, things like women can't talk or loiter on sidewalks. these women have experienced real violence at the hands of the ultraorthodox men there, challenge the signs and tell the city, look, if you don't remove the signs, you're legitimizing violence against us. we've tried mediation. now we're going to the courts. these incredibly radical feminist liberal lawyers from the left, as i say, of the spectrum, joined forces,

absolutely across coalitions and ideologies, to work with these women, to essentially say, whoever was drawing the boundaries of church/state in israel was doing it by men, for men. and we question that authority. we're going to do it by women, for women now. >> we're talking about a divided israel here. you go obviously tel aviv, posters of women in bikinis are all over the beaches of tel aviv. but if you have -- in some parts of jerusalem, any pictures of women, even modestly dressed women, are spray painted or vandalized, torn off, by the ultraorthodox. >> that's right, so israel has had kind of best of both worlds. it's been a place where a very secularism has flourished. women have rights that go far beyond what you get even in parts of scandinavia, western europe, the united states. and then you have this other group of ultraorthodox which have existed on the margins and

live their lives as they see fit. increasingly, those two worlds have come in to clash with one another. that clash is only going to get worse over time. the ultraorthodox population that dalia describes are growing in numbers. by the year 2016, within 50 years, if demographics were to continue pace, that group would constitute about 40% of israeli society. and that's why you see in recent elections that this issue of the ultraorthodox who have been a very, very small marginal population in the country has riz sen to the fore. >> frank, you also in this new -- in your magazine "the new republic" also talk to john mccain. my goodness, john mccain has quite a few things to say about rand paul and ted cruz. tell us about it. >> i think as some of your viewers have probably caught wind, john mccain is back in his

old maverick form. he gave an interview to our magazine, where i think he kind of went all in, in certain respects in this. and we asked him, would would you vote for in a matchup between hillary clinton and rand paul, and he said, i don't know, and he laughed, and then he tried to say a couple nice things about rand paul. but even as he was doing it, he was kind of -- the guy with praise. he made it clear he thinks the tea party came to washington to do nothing. and what he sees is kind of their nilism is something that really chafes at him and it's clearly driving him to kind of go back to his 2000 form, where he's the renegade within the party. >> and so this is what john mccain said in the interview about members of the tea party. i try and be respectful and go out there and debate them every chance i get. for four years, harry reid, i

beat him up regularly, wouldn't bring a budget to the senate. this year, we brought one, stayed up all night. we were so proud. wes paed a budget resolution, most of it nonsense, but guess what, now we have the same group who are blocking going to conference. the same group sometimes doesn't want to take up a bill. and at other times, blocks a bill because they can't get amendments. obviously, this has been, john meacham, a great frustration, not putting the budget on the the floor. a handful of republicans stop it, kill it. >> right, it's like the kidney stone. >> right. >> can't get it passed. >> unless you're mitch mcconnell. >> won't even pass it. >> john mccain appears to have gone back into his old role as maverick. >> as maverick, which is sort of washington-speak for someone who actually tells the truth and that's mavericky as his former

running made put it. >> you had to do it. >> just curious, in the interview, i'm going to get it slightly wrong but i think i'm right that bob dole asked mcgovern when does it stop hurting when you lose a presidential race and mcgovern said "i'll let you know." >> right. >> to what extent did you get any feeling that mccain is still revisiting or suffering personally somehow from '08? >> we talked to him about that explicitly. curiously enough, the subject of anger is one of the things that actually makes the guy pretty angry. we asked him point blank if he has an anger problem and he ripped us. he was pretty explicit about this. he said the '08 election hurt incredibly badly. and that it took him a while to go over it. he joked about how he still -- he would be happy if he was president. but there were a couple things that were curious to me in this interview. we talked to him at great length

about foreign policy yet he didn't mention the subject of benghazi once which seems to mesh with the broader sense that the white house not only made a detent with the guy but they found him a useful ally. the white house always had this theory there would be a chunk of republicans they could break away, they just didn't know who the leader of that faction would be. by all reports, the chief of staff talks to mccain all the time. and in this interview, he kind of went through a lot of patterns to kind of avoid criticizing the president on foreign policy. >> that's fascinating. >> the feminists of zion is the new republic cover story. >> go liverpool, we're only weeks away. >> up next in the wake of detroit's bankruptcy, is a wave of pension problems about to hit states and cities across the country? today's business headlines with

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all right. in iran, there's a new leader but a bunch of old problems yesterday. he was sworn in as the country's seventh president. he announced his cabinet pick, suggesting a more moderate style of government than that of his predecessor mahmoud ahmadinejad. white house press secretary jay carney congratulated the iranian people. saying it presents an opportunity for iran to act quickly to resolve the international community's deep concerns over iran's nuclear program. however, last week, both the house and senate expressed concerns over iran's nuclear ambitions, calling for a tougher sanctions against tehran. and the front page of today's "wall street journal" suggest iran is seeking a new path to build a bomb. u.s. and european officials are now saying the country could be

making weapons-grade plutonium by next summer. >> you know, last week, we keep hearing about this new moderate face in iranian politics. just let loose a torrent of anti-semantic remarks. which i'll still waiting for the white house to speak out aggressively against those anti-semantic remarks. we'll wait and see. >> important dramas that's been unfolding the last 70 years is nuclear proliferation. we pop in on the story very occasionally. but there's been this inexorable spread which einstein and oppenheimer all predicted. >> you know who else was worried about it so many years ago, amy carter. amy carter. jimmy got mocked at the end of that 1980 debate.

but you know what, he said amy carter was concerned about nuclear proliferation back in 1980 and here we are, good lord, 32 years later. >> living in that shadow. >> we are living in the shadow. we're living in april's world now. jimmy was right. >> i think we all owe others. >> are you going to make fun of a president? >> i'm not making fun of him! his daughter was right! nuclear proliferation still haunts us. she was right. and everybody made fun of him. i think it says a lot about his daughter to be -- 32 years ago. >> i think that whole era and the young women around the white house, the era -- >> what? what? what's wrong with both of you? business before the bell now. >> mika was playing around the yard there back then. >> there you go. >> running around in golf carts. >> that was not the white house. let's go to cnbc's kelly evans. >> people may not realize it,

we're actually sitting at record highs for both the dow and s&p 500. we closed there on friday despite the weak jobs report and that's where we pick up this morning. couple of sobering reminders it i just want to draw people's attention to. when we think about the long-term challenges and structural problems. first, today, august 5th, does mark the two-year anniversary of when s&p downgraded the u.s. we've got stocks up 40% since then and the 10-year has come down significantly so bond yields are moving the opposite direction of what a lot of people warned would happen. this is part of the reason for the second thing we're keeping an eye on this morning, which is the pension crisis that still looms across the country. i encourage people to go to cnbc.com. there's analysis up there of 120 state and local pension plans. they're a reminder of what we need congress and a lot of municipality, to do. that is to think about the challenges to get us from nine states in particular where we've got underfunding where pensions have less than 60% of their long-term costs set aside.

that includes illinois. also includes a couple of other states that might surprise you. we've got the debt ceiling looming on the federal level. case of detroit, of course, filing for bankruptcy, and the precedent that's going to set, as a lot of other municipality, start to deal with these issues. it's still one the market will keep a very close eye on, guys. >> how do they deal with it, other than -- how do they deal with these liabilities they can't pay for? is there anything they can could to try to stem the tide? >> a lot are trying to deflect attention away from it and basically going on a hope and prayer they'll be able to get a 7.5% return which is what they generated during the '90s. every day the 10-year sits at 2.6% is another day this problem gets worse and not better. >> cnbc's kelly evans, thank you. coming up, it's the first live grown burger ever attempted. >> thank god. >> it cost more than $140,000.

>> what? >> i've been waiting for this day. >> how it could change the way we eat. keep it right here on "morning joe." it's back to school time and we're talking with maria about the walmart low price guarantee. got your list? let's go. why after school snacks? because my kids are starving when they get home from school and hot pockets are perfect. look at that price. wow! now all your back to school meals are covered. thank you. ok, ready? what?! that's the walmart low price guarantee backed by ad match. save time and money getting your kids ready for school. bring in receipts from your local stores and see for yourself. save more this back to school on convenient after school snacks with low prices on gushers value packs and hot pockets sandwiches with our low price guarantee backed by ad match. but you had to leave rightce to now, would you go? world, man: 'oh i can't go tonight' woman: 'i can't.' hero : that's what expedia asked me. host: book the flight but you have to go right now. hero: (laughs) and i just go? this is for real right? this is for real?

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the first thing i had to do in getting this job is learn about the competition. we came up with the flashcard system to make american comparisons to english teams. all i had to do was link what i don't know to what i do know. >> manchester united. super rich. everybody loves them or hates them. >> dallas cowboys. >> liverpool, haven't won a title in a really long time. >> also cowboys. >> kansas city. >> what's that hot girl's name? >> manchester city. >> jennifer lawrence. because of that training, i guarantee we're going to beat the cowboys and the cowboys and jennifer lawrence. has there been a learning curve? a little bit. >> starting to understand how the scores are so low. look how tiny those goals are. >> wow, three points. >> no points. >> no points, why not? >> it's got to go in. >> you've got to get it in there to get three points. >> one point. >> that was jason sudeikis as an

american football coach hired to turn around a soccer club in the uk. to promote nbc's partnership with the english premier league. pretty funny. >> yeah, funny. that hamburger story yet? it's not going to change the way we eat. whether it's made from the lab or made -- i go from eating a hamburger to eating a hamburger. >> right. okay. so the first lab-grown test tube burger will be unveiled and tasted today in london. >> should have brought it here. >> i'm hungry. >> the burger is composed of 20,000 strips of meat grown from cow stem cells and will go down as the most expensive -- >> is this real? this is awful. >> alex, did you fact check this? >> you think this is maybe by mistake we got this somewhere and it's wrong? >> is this the union? >> we have the story. >> reporter: the all american hamburger. it makes you think of herds of cattle, the great plains, family-run farms.

and laboratories? it may not look appetizing at first, but beef from test tubes could be the future. scientists have been busy proving that beef can be grown in a lab. from cattle stem cells. beet juice, saffron, caramel and bread crumbs are added. a burger is born. today, they want to show people can eat it. >> very good. >> reporter: in new york over the weekend, folks weren't convinced. >> i think it's disgusting. >> maybe could be cheaper. >> i think it's pretty awesome they can do that. >> reporter: it's been estimated that every american spends around $270 on beef each year. eating 61 pounds of the meat annually. but all the steaks and hamburgers increasingly popular around the world too are costly. cattle consumer and produce a lot of environment damage. in some countries, ancient forests are cleared for cattle

to graze. this doctor and his team are working to convince the world a more environmentally friendly meat is needed and can be made. >> 20% of all the greenhouse gas emission comes from livestock. vegetarian with a hummer is actually better for the environment than a meat eater with a bicycle. >> reporter: the scientists say mass production could be a decade away but america's beef farmers may not welcome the idea. will laboratory meat drive down farmer's income? they already have to sell cheap. and cattle farming adds billions to america's bank accounts. right now, this artificial meat is rare. some call it franken burgers. but one day, we may all be eating it. >> one day. it's good for the environment. >> i get the why now. i was asking why for a long time. >> it tastes great too. >> lab to table. >> lab to table. >> that's the new movement. >> that's the new trend all across the deep south. >> julia reed's been writing --

>> lab to mato, baby. >> when is julia coming back? >> and "garden & gun" magazine, i love that. >> just had a baby. well, his wife. >> pierre simmons reporting. up next, what, if anything, did we learn today? >> lab to table, i like it. with the spark miles card from capital one, bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less?

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about any conditions, such as kidney, liver or bleeding problems. ready to change your routine? ask your doctor about once-a-day xarelto®. for more information including cost support options, call 1-888-xarelto or visit goxarelto.com. that's gross, why would you say that? >> mika, you're wandering off. saying crude things in your ear again, seriously? we've got an x machi-rated dire. what's wrong with you? >> i can't believe he did that. >> it's like andrew dice clay. he just says the most vulgar things in mika's ears. we're calling hr. >> go ahead. >> what did you learn? >> why would you go to philly for a new hip? you can go to belgium, then hit paris, maybe nice, finish it up in rome. >> don't get a tummy tuck in

brazil. >> what did you learn? >> kentucky senate race, great barometer, watching the line of the campaign so far, which is mcconnell wouldn't pass a kidney stone. >> best line ever. >> we got to get mitch to come on the show, don't we? >> yes, we do. >> thanks for watching today. greatly appreciate it. if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's time for "morning joe" but now it's time for "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. >> t.j., i'm coming to get you, right now. the guy, i swear. al qaeda chatter. the startling details about the terror threat that has u.s. officials ordering more than a dozen embassies across the globe closed now till at least this saturday. has the heightened alert thwarted the terror plot or are u.s. officials buying more time to try and smoke the bad guys out? next u, cairo, amid the terror threat, senators head to egypt to try to broker an end to the standoff between military